[Gaius Caesar "Caligula" died peacefully]

The conspirators' motives were clearly more political than personal; the empress Caesonia and the princess Drusilla (two years old) were assassinated too, and Claudius survived by sheer luck.

[Coal in the Bunker]

There's both textual (mostly the Elder Pliny) and archaeological (mostly British) evidence of some extraction and a discrete trade of coal. Its use as fuel was always secondary and far from charcoal and wood in Rome and elsewhere, at least up to the Southern Song dynasty in China. Roman metallurgy added coal to some alloys; it was also used for jewelry, cosmetics and medicine.

[Gaius Caesar "Caligula" died peacefully]

The same can be said regarding Alexander III the Great of Macedon; age requirements are there for the sake of minimal maturity, and very few individuals can be expected to succeed without fulfilling them.

 

Anyone can be blood-thirsty, particularly across civil wars; what made Octavius/Augustus and a fistful of historical world leaders unique was their exceptionally gifted administrative performance.

 

If the emperor Caius (aka Caligula) died in 41 and not in 84 AD, it was mostly due to suboptimal security; both his predecessors and most of his successors survived to countless conspiracies.

[High def, big screen TV docs vs archeo site visits?]

Apples and oranges are trying to be compared here. As Neil put it nicely, archaeological tourism and multimedia are not alternative, but complementary to each other.

BTW, the same applies to almost any personal experience; from animal observation (just check Aurelia's blog) to human sex.

[Preserving the world's most important artifacts]

Let me share some key concepts that I have found within the General Guidelines to Safeguard Documentary Heritage from the Memory of The World programme (R Edmonson, UNESCO, 2002):

 

1.2 Objectives of Memory of the World

(a) To facilitate preservation, by the most appropriate techniques, of the world

[Preserving the world's most important artifacts]

The Tabula Peutingeriana is actually a Roman Map.

As its name suggests, the Bibliotheca Corviniana Collection includes many documents: most of them are Greek and Roman classics.

At least the New Testament is clearly from the Roman age and world.

 

The Tabula Peutingeriana is a medieval reproduction of a Roman map dating back to the 12th century

The Biblioteca Corviniana Collection is also medieval (not sure if it contains any original works from the Roman period although it does contain books by Greek and Latin authors)

The Gutenberg Bible was printed in 1455

 

Please don't get me wrong, all the above works are very relevant to the Roman period. What I meant is that I was looking for original Roman documents, not reproductions from later periods.

Then the Vienna Dioscurides doesn't qualify either; we have basically restricted ourselves to papyrii, numismatics and epigraphy.

[Preserving the world's most important artifacts]

Then, you answered your own original question; by the same measure, ALL documents should be preserved.

 

Roman documents? From the original link, I was able to spot:

 

- Vienna Dioscurides;

- Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer;

- Tabula Peutingeriana;

- The Bibliotheca Corviniana Collection;

- and maybe even the 42-line Gutenberg Bible.

 

You're right, sylla. Perhaps I should have been more specific. I agree that documents and books such as "Mein Kampf" should be preserved although it would not be number one on my list of items that should be added to the UNESCO Register.

 

As for the list of Roman documents, yes, once again you're right about Dioscurides (I didn't spot it the first time), and probably some of the documents in the Egyptian papyri collection (I assumed they only concerned papyri pre-dating the Roman period) . I was mainly looking for documents that were actually produced in the Roman period, which is not really the case with the Tabula (very interesting nonetheless!), Bibliotheca Corviniana or the Gutenberg Bible.

The Tabula Peutingeriana is actually a Roman Map.

As its name suggests, the Bibliotheca Corviniana Collection includes many documents: most of them are Greek and Roman classics.

At least the New Testament is clearly from the Roman age and world.

 

I haven't been able to find the well-defined selection criteria for additional documents; anyway, my obvious personal suggestion would be the Trajan's Column.

[Preserving the world's most important artifacts]

But I think 'Mein Kampf' with its 164,000 grammatical and Syntactical errors should be kept - along with the propaganda films of Goebbels - as illustrations of what can be achieved by warped thinking and beliefs. If you actually read any of it, the lack of clear-headed logic is insightful.

 

I agree. And aside from moral considerations, "Mein Kampf" is part of history whether we like it or not.

 

Anyway, while browsing through the list I noticed that there's not much (read nothing, at least nothing I could see) from the Roman period. I wonder why...

Then, you answered your own original question; by the same measure, ALL documents should be preserved.

 

Roman documents? From the original link, I was able to spot:

 

- Vienna Dioscurides;

- Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer;

- Tabula Peutingeriana;

- The Bibliotheca Corviniana Collection;

- and maybe even the 42-line Gutenberg Bible.

[Pirkis or Blessed?]

On his own last day, Augustus said something like:

 

"Since well I've played my part, all clap your hands

And from the stage dismiss me with applause."

 

It seems no one portraited Augustus better than Caius Octavius.

[Preserving the world's most important artifacts]

The Memory of the World Register lists over 800 historic manuscripts, maps, films and more to help raise funds for preservation. What, in your opinion, should be added to the list?

 

 

Source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-arch...-Artifacts.html

Given the current electronic documentary storage capabilities and the expected improvements, methinks the right question would be which documents SHOULDN'T be added to that list (for example, Mein Kampf).